Ever since smartphones started selling like hot cakes, developing apps became extremely profitable. Games were a natural direction to go, offering 10-15 minutes of welcome distraction while commuting or sitting in a waiting room. Games such as Angry Birds and Ninja Fruit made it big by developing new touch-friendly controls. Other top selling gaming apps simply port over already popular games. But there still has never been a large game which retains the top position with people invested enough to keep playing for dozens of hours.
GTA games have always sold well, but after the initial hype dies off TTWO shares invariably fall off with lack of forward projected profit generation. With the release of GTA V, TTWO has demonstrated expanded plans for it's top selling product.
For GTA V to truly be successful, a lot depends on the Online portion. The most profitable plan would be to support microtransactions in a world which people are invested in. By mimicking the success of huge online games such as World of Warcraft, GTA has the advantage of appealing to more casual gamers as well.
The other aspect which will determine the financial success of the GTA series and TTWO is their ability to produce quality mobile apps and tie-in games. Linking up to mobile devices would be a smart move for a company which already has built an intensive Online world. Mini-games, character-customization, there are plenty of ways to bring the GTA experience to smaller screens.
Despite stories left and right about GTA V breaking the billion dollar mark in record time, the market has always had a love-hate relationship with TTWO. Rockstar true to their name, has always been a difficult asset to manage; taking time to port titles and make sequels, Rockstar almost always leaves money on the table compared to games like Madden with annual releases.
Depending on their plans for GTA Online and mobile apps, GTA V might finally be the game to demonstrate forward momentum for TTWO. As always, time will tell.